Layout template tool for positioning building materials

ABSTRACT

The layout tool is used for marking the positions for building materials, such as studs, joists, rafters, trusses and rough door opening trimmer studs, before nailing in permanent position on wall plates and sill plates. The layout tool has templates that are the same width of building materials, that are attached at indicia markings, &#34;on center&#34;, from either end of an extruded member and the interlocking design of the manufacture keeps them perpendicular. Also provided are the rough door sizes that are indicia marked and layout can be marked from either end of invention.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

The conventional way of laying out wall studs, floor joists, roofrafters, trusses and rough door layout is time consuming and physicallytiring and is not as accurate as using the apparatus of the presentinvention. The framing carpenter marks on a structural building memberwhere the sides of all the interconnecting structural building materialsare going to be placed using a tape measure. For 11/2" wide wall studs,joists, rafters or trusses, the carpenter hooks the tape measure on theend of the wall plates or sill plate, he/she must deduct 3/4" (1/2 thewidth of the material) at all center marks, on the tape measure andmarks the wall plates, at standard engineered building centers, such as151/4", 311/4", 471/4", etc. This is very eye straining and mistakesfrequently happen in this process.

The other way of marking engineered building centers on a structuralbuilding member is to measure 151/4" along the length of the structuralbuilding member from the end of the plate and mark this point, thenhammer a nail at that mark and bend it over perpendicular to the plates.The worker then hooks the end of the tape to the bent nail and pulls thetape out as the worker marks the engineered building centers and alsomake a "X" mark on both wall plates or sill plate on the side of themark in the direction that the worker is going. After marking 20' ofcenters the carpenter tends to pull the tape measure and sometimes thenail will swivel and the centers are then wrong if he keeps marking to30'. Then at 30' a nail is needed again at the last mark made. Layoutswith tape measures are limited to the length of the tape measure beforethe nail system is needed. When all the centers are marked the carpentermust start at the beginning with a square and make square lines acrossthe two plates or sill plate at all center marks made using themeasurement process described above. These lines are where the side ofthe stud will be placed, on the "X" side.

Marking for joists and rafters is similar as the studs but marking forthe plywood joist and rafters is more difficult because of the widths,13/4" and 2 5/16" and the centers of 19.2" for these materials.

For rough door layout, the carpenter marks for a stud side, measures11/2" and marks, measures 11/2" for door trimmer and marks and writes an"S" for the stud and a "T" for the trimmer. From that door trimmer edge,the carpenter measures the door size plus 2" for the jambs and shimspaces, then measures 11/2" for the trimmer and marks and 11/2" for thestud and marks, then writes the "T" and "X"s. The worker then uses acarpenter's square to mark perpendicular lines across the plates at themarks made using the tape measure to determine the proper engineeredbuilding centers. There are times when the carpenter forgets the 2"space or the individual does not know about the 2" space required for adoor opening. This mistake, if not caught soon, can cost loss of timeand expense as the building progresses. The present invention savestime, much bending and is accurate with no limit in layout length. Thereis no error of reading the tape measure or the person knowing dimensionsor having to compute fractions of material sizes, such as one half of11/2", 13/4" or 2 5/16" and rough door size.

STATEMENT OF PRIOR ART

Hence, it has been proposed, as evidenced by U.S. Pat. No. 4,584,780 anelectrical template, in U.S. Pat. No. 2,452,962 a beam centering tooland in U.S. Pat. No. 5,012,590 a disposable adhesive layout tape. Thefollowing foreign patent documents also do not anticipate the templatetool of the present invention: No. 821 557 Fed. Rep. of Germany and No.1.160.185 Rep. of France.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The present invention consists of an apparatus for marking on astructural building member, such as wall plates or sill plates, thecorrect position for interconnecting structural building members, suchas studs, joists, rafters, trusses and rough door opening trimmer studsbefore they are permanently secured in place, on a building underconstruction. The manufacture of this invention is of less cost than rawbuilding material, and has features that make it simple to use for errorfree marking of building structural members.

The layout tool of the present invention has templates that match widthsof studs, joists, rafters and trusses, 11/2", 13/4", 2 5/16" and arecolor coded to correspond to that width of building material. Thetemplates include features that are of size and position to form aninterlocking design to mate with the extruded guide member. The featuresthat interlock the templates with the guide member, ensure that thetemplates and guide member are perpendicular to each other whenattached. There are indicia marked holes drilled for correct spacing oftemplates to be attached with a fastener, bolt and nut, at desiredcenters, 12", 16" 19.2" (second center is indicia marked 383/8") and24". This invention will cut the time and physical backache by 2/3 rd's,and is the best for accuracy.

The layout tool of the present invention is first placed so the guidemember end is flush with the end of wall plates or sill plate. Markingall template sides from that end, then moving invention so the endtemplate is between the last marks made and mark templates again, etc.

The use of the different size templates for floor joists and rafters, isa similar procedure, except that the tool member is placed on the sideof sill or rafter plate and templates are flat, on top of sill or rafterplates, for after marking templates there will be a outline of thebuilding material to placed at that position.

Rough door layout is made by placing outer edge of the end template,commonly used 11/2" wide, at inside edge of door trimmer line and markcorrect door size for the other side trimmer stud edge, use end templateto mark for trimmer and stud widths.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 illustrates a perspective rear view of the template tool of thepresent invention as placed in position on two wall plates.

FIG. 2 illustrates a perspective front view of the template tool of thepresent invention as placed in position on two wall plates.

FIG. 3 illustrates a perspective exploded view of the template tool ofthe present invention.

FIG. 4 illustrates an end exploded view of the template tool of thepresent invention to demonstrate the interlocking of templates and guidemember.

FIG. 5 illustrates rear and side views of a plurality of different sizetemplates.

FIG. 6 illustrates a front view of the guide member with its imprintedindicia markings.

FIG. 7 illustrates a front view of the template tool of the presentinvention with a number of templates installed thereon.

FIG. 8 illustrates the template tool of the present invention withtemplates installed for the purpose of rough door indicia marking.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Reference is first made to FIG. 1 wherein the template tool of thepresent invention is placed on two wooden wall plates 17 that are layingflat, with the end of guide member 1 at end of wall plates 17. FIG. 2,illustrates a front view of the template tool, placed on two wall plates17, with a plurality of templates 3 positioned to enable a carpentermarking to mark an outline of a structural building member (not shown)on wall plates 17 by marking around each of templates 3 with pencil 18on wall plates 17. The outline of each template 3 is marked on wallplates 17 seriatim, in a direction from one end of wall plates 17 to asecond end.

Reference is made to FIG. 3, which is an exploded view of the templatetool of the present invention, with a guide member 1 and templates 2, 3and a fastener consisting of: bolt 4, washer 4A and nut 11. Guide member1 consists of a straight ridged material of extruded plastic or otherridged material at a length that will be a multiple of 2, or 16. FIG. 4and FIG. 5 illustrate side and rear views of various dimensionedtemplates 2*, 3* manufactured by injection or extruded plastic or otherridged material, which can be color coded for simplicity of differentsize determination. The design of the extrusion pattern for templates 2,3, 2AR, 3A, 2AL, 2BR, 3B and 2BL and the design of the extrusion ofguide member 1, are such that the templates 2*, 3* and guide member 1are interlocking when the templates 2*, 3* are attached to guidemember 1. FIG. 4 illustrates a side view of a typical extrusion pattern,with two indentations in guide member 1, deep enough to accept themating protrusions of templates, such as template 2AR, keeping templatesperpendicular to guide member 1 and secured when fastened. The extrusionform, on backside of the guide member 1 keeps nut 11 unable to move whenbolt 4 is tightened.

Reference is made to FIG. 5. The width of templates is the width ofbuilding materials that are used in the building process, such as:studs, floor joists and rafters. Templates 2 and 3 are, for example,11/2" wide, while templates 2AR, 3A, 2AL are 13/4" wide and templates2BR, 3B, 2BL are 2 5/16" wide, at a thickness so a marking device ridesalong the sides of the template edge from guide member 1 to end oftemplate, which length is just less than the height (3") of two wallplates 17 lying flat. FIG. 6 and FIG. 7 illustrate guide member 1 andguide member 1 with templates 2, 3 interlocked, respectively. Templates2 are positioned at both ends of guide member 1 and building structuralmember templates 2 are centered widthwise on guide member 1. Along thelength of guide member 1 is formed a plurality of apertures or holes 5,centered between the extrusion indentations on guide member or one halfthe width of guide member 1. FIG. 5 illustrates the mating holes 2H,2ARH, 2ARLH, 2BRH and 2BLH in template 2, 2AR, 2AL, 2BR, 2BL which holescoincide with the holes 5 on guide member 1 when templates 2*, 3* areattached to guide member 1. All end templates, 2, 2AR (R for righttemplate), 2AL (L for left template), 2BR, and 2BL are centered inwidth, at the end of guide member 1, where the holes in guide member 1and end templates 2AR, 2AL coincide. Templates 3, 3A and 3B have a holeat the center of the width and centered between the protrusions of theextrusion of guide member 1, which is one half of guide member 1 width,which will coincide with holes in guide member 1.

Reference is made to FIG. 6 and FIG. 7, wherein the indicia markingsplaced on guide member 1, are to show the placement positions for thetemplates. The indicia markings are placed next to a hole, centered inwidth on guide member 1, at the proper distance of that indicia numberfrom either end of guide member 1. The indicia marked hole centers arethe engineered distances for building materials, as the indicia markings1'0", 16", 19.2", 383/8" (a second 19.2" center) and 2'0".

FIG. 6 and FIG. 7 illustrate templates 3 placed on guide member 1 atcoinciding holes 8, with corresponding indicia marked at 16" and alsonoted at a 180 degrees position at coinciding hole 10. The Figures alsoillustrate indicia marked at a location that corresponds to 2'0" fromthe end of guide member 1, and templates 2 attached at coinciding holes5 of guide member 1, the centers of the templates being located at theindicia marking 16", "on center", on one side, and 24", "on center" onthe other side of the guide member. This positioning of these templatesof 11/2" width, at these positions are the most commonly used in theconstruction trade. Templates, (not shown), 3 can be placed in variouscombinations, listed below. These combinations include templates 3oriented in the same direction at holes 8 and hole 10, which is centeredat 8" spacing. Templates 2AR and 2AL centered on ends, at coincidingholes 5 placed in same direction, (not shown), on guide member 1 withtemplates 3A at coinciding holes 8, corresponding to indicia markings16" are 16" "on center". When one template 3A is attached at coincidinghole 10 at indicia marking 2'0", the centers are 2'0", "on center".With, (not shown), one template 2AR or 2AL attached at coinciding hole 5and a 3A template attached at coinciding indicia marked hole 19.2" (hole9) and a template 3A attached at coinciding indicia marked hole 383/8"(hole 6), the centers are as the indicia marking 19.2" (383/8" is thesecond center of 19.2") "on center". This engineered "on center"dimension is for the plywood joist and rafter systems. With (not shown)templates 2BR and 2BL centered at coinciding hole 5 of guide member 1and templates 3B placed over coinciding hole 7 at indicia marking 1'0",the centers are as the indicia marking, 1'0", "on center", for plywoodjoists and rafter systems, 2 5/16" wide.

Reference is made to FIG. 8, which illustrates an application for roughdoor sizes, wherein indicia marked lines that are perpendicular to guidemember 1 edge and are at a distance from outside edge of template 2 tothe indicia line, which is 2" larger than a door size. Next to andparallel to that line, is imprinted on guide member 1 an indicia numbershowing door size, indicia 16 at a location that corresponds to 2'0",indicia 15 at a location that corresponds to 2'4", indicia 14 at alocation that corresponds to 2'6", indicia 13 at a location thatcorresponds to 2'8" and indicia 12 at a location that corresponds to3'0".

What is claimed is:
 1. A layout template tool for marking firststructural building members to position other structural buildingmembers such as floor joists, studs, rafters and rough door openingtrimmer studs, in relation to said first structural building membercomprising:a guide member manufactured of an extruded material, having alength and a width and having a plurality of apertures formed therein,spaced apart along said length at sites representative of engineeredbuilding centers for said other structural building members; a pluralityof templates, each of which includes an aperture formed therein andhaving features that interlock with features on said extruded materialof said guide member, said features comprising an interlocking track andgroove combination, to maintain said template perpendicular to saidlength of said guide member and extending beyond said width of saidguide member when fastened to said guide member with a fastener, eachsaid template having a width that corresponds to a building member widthto function as a guide for a marking device, to draw an outline of thatbuilding member on said structural first building member when said guidemember is placed lengthwise against said first structural buildingmember, and wherein said template, when rotated 180 degrees with respectto said guide member, still interlocks with and is maintainedperpendicular to said guide member.
 2. A layout template tool accordingto claim 1, wherein said guide member is of length that is substantiallya multiple of a length of an engineered building center and includesindicia imprinted on said guide member adjacent each said aperture, saidindicia noting a distance of said aperture from an end of said guidemember for placement of templates.
 3. A layout template tool accordingto claim 2, wherein each of said templates have an aperture formedtherein that coincides with said apertures formed in said guide memberto position said template when fastened to said guide member on centerfrom each other, and from either end of said length of said guidemember.
 4. A layout template tool according to claim 3, wherein saidtemplates are of length to extend beyond a lengthwise edge of said guidemember a distance less than but not equal to, two wooden wall plates,placed flat in width.
 5. A layout template tool according to claim 1,wherein each said template is color coded to correspond to differentsize building members.
 6. A layout template tool according to claim 1,wherein said guide member includes indicia imprinted thereon indicativeof door sizes and an indicia line, placed on said guide member adistance from an outside edge of a commonly used template said distancebeing a rough door distance, to include that door width, jambthicknesses and shim space size.